Group Urges Recreation Upgrade

ENFIELD — The Enfield Taxpayers Association, a group that has fought for years to rein in town spending, has come up against a new opponent.

The Friends of Recreation.

The fledgling group wants voters to approve a nearly $10 million package to fix the town's athletic fields and parks, put up lights at two Little League fields and make the cracked Green Manor Pool work again. And they want to make sure an association dominated by senior citizens doesn't get in their way.

``I have a saying, `It's a small group of grumps who don't want to get the lumps out of our recreation fields,''' said Richard Adams, who has two children enrolled in Enfield public schools. ``They're only looking out for their self interests.''

The taxpayers' association was active in the '80s and early '90s and at the height of its power helped defeat two school improvement projects. The seniors regrouped in September, after the town council finalized the $9.5 million recreation project. Since then, the taxpayers' association has spent $600 on fliers and on catchy orange and black signs they have posted around town urging residents to vote ``no.''

``Now is not the time to commit ourselves to another raise in taxes,'' the sign reads in part.

Association founder Scott Vining faulted the town for not keeping up its athletic fields and other facilities. ``If it was maintained, it wouldn't be in this shape,'' he said. He also is concerned about the increase in electricity bills and maintenance costs if the project gets approved.

It may be debatable who is to blame for the deterioration of the town's parks and fields, but few dispute something needs to be done. ``Our recreational facilities here in town are dreadful,'' said Dan O'Connell, a track coach at Fermi High School. ``I don't think anyone's arguing about that. We've neglected this issue for so many years.''

Coaches say that some teams have refused to play on Enfield's high school fields, and students have complained about getting injured on the fields and cinder tracks, which have less traction than modern synthetic tracks.

Though the taxpayers' association is against extravagant spending, some of its members raised a ruckus this fall when the town cut a costly and, many argued, ineffective, service of vacuuming residents' leaves from their lawns. The group also raised no objections when a new senior center was approved.

So far, Friends of Recreation has spent $300 on fliers and yellow and black signs with the message: ``Vote Yes for Rec.''

Sal Fiore, a volunteer basketball and softball coach who works for Hallmark, also plans to post a custom-made sign on his front lawn, facing Vining, his neighbor: ``A yes vote is a vote for our future/children.''

``I'm in it for the kids,'' he said.

Vining, a former school board chairman and retired truck driver, says it's nothing personal, he is against the project on principle. ``He believes we should have it,'' he said. ``I'm saying it's throwing bad money after bad money because they don't maintain anything.''